Even amidst the firehose of news, internet voting was among the hot media topics this summer. For frustrated voters who still struggle with access - even without a pandemic - and would benefit from mobile voting, progress seems too slow.
It's not all gloom and doom. Here’s the good news: the summer of 2020 was a milestone period that accelerated the understanding and education of the viability of mobile voting.
This was a long time coming, but it was not a given. At the beginning of the year, we anticipated that a few counties would pilot mobile voting and that would help move the ball forward with building additional proof of concept.
Instead, we were hit with a global catastrophe that highlighted for many leaders the need to build resiliency in election options and to more widely adopt mobile voting. Voatz was honored with multiple opportunities to test our platform and allow people to vote from the safety of their homes.
 Because of the pandemic, state political parties on both sides of the aisle chose to hold their conventions completely virtually, with the same stringent security standards as governmental elections. With nearly 7,000 ballots cast, the Utah Republican Party conventions became the largest mobile voting exercise to date. The Michigan Democratic Party also held its first virtual convention, with nearly 2,000 votes cast on the Voatz platform. They have allowed a comprehensive study of security challenges we can expect to see in the field. It also tested true accessibility by disenfranchised populations.
On November 3rd, this presidential election will become the first to use a smartphone app-based mobile voting platform. We are humbled to have been part of making history. In a number of counties, people with disabilities, deployed members of the military and overseas citizens will have the option to vote on their phone.
The summer of mobile voting did not happen overnight. Voatz is built on the shoulders of giants and has been working with trusted technologies developed by other visionaries.
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Remote Identity Verification
What:
Remote identity verification methodologies have become possible and scalable as a result of the advancements in smartphone hardware (particularly high-resolution cameras and pseudo-biometric capabilities). NIST published a standard for this in 2017 (updated this year) that is now widely used in several other industries.
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Blockchain Technology
What:
A distributed ledger (more commonly known as a blockchain) creates a tamper-resistant system that is built for trust, transparency, and auditability.
- Built on a decentralized network of nodes based within the U.S.
- An immutable record of every marked oval on a voted ballot is created, which can later be audited by voters, auditors and election officials
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Hardware Security on Smartphones
What:
Modern smartphones include hardware security modules and trusted processing environments that enable the safe store of digital keys and other sensitive information.
To quote Apple:
“Secure software requires a foundation of security built into hardware. That’s why Apple devices—running iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS—have security capabilities designed into silicon.”
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Proactive Network & Device Threat Detection
What:
The field of mobile threat detection and mitigation has advanced significantly in the last few years. It enables native smartphone applications to detect & mitigate against device tampering, malware, suspicious apps and network level threats, including man-in-the-middle attacks, use of unsafe networks, etc.
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I LOVE this pilot. Voting has never been easier from abroad. I have never been more confident that my vote was received and counted. I encourage you to move forward with the Voatz system because it has been easy to navigate, easy to mitigate questions through fast responses, and seamless. A wonderful solution to the challenge of voting from overseas. I really appreciate receiving an email that my vote was received and accepted. I have NEVER had that happen while voting from abroad; my ballot always comes too late, and when I mail it off, I have no idea if it arrived in time. The Voatz app is FANTASTIC! Thank you for helping me participate in this election!
— Anonymous Voter, Nov 2020
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Summer Reading
Revisiting some of the opinion pieces from Voatz advisors and investors
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Help Expand Voter Access
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